Tag: Coachella 2012

Another thing that made Coachella 2012 so unforgettable was the fact that we experienced it twice. Our comrade in arms Christopher R. Weingarten did a helluva job summing up the weirdness of all that (read “Why the Hell Did We Go to Coachella Weekend Two?” via SPIN) while we here at Aural Standards took the chance to see just about everything we’d missed on the first run. Below are are four favorite sets from each day. Below you’ll find a list of what we covered with excerpted bits. Click on the DAY to read full reviews at SPIN.

FRIDAY
1. Wallpaper: when he clapped, they clapped; when he bounced, they leapt…
2. Gary Clark Jr: Black Keys could’ve learned a thing or two about the blues…
3. Explosions in the Sky: floating in on a pillow of harmonic resonance…
4. Ximena Sariñana: her powerful voice and innate charm won us over…

SATURDAY
1. St. Vincent: jagged blasts of guitar like vines of cherry bombs blowing…
2. Feist: the hulking, honking horns added a marching band-sized heft…
3. David Guetta: even 50 feet back from the tent’s edge, it was a furnace…
4. Miike Snow: Lykke Li coaxed the ancient viking vibes out of the music…

In addition to reporting on the best sets of Coachella 2012 Weekend Two, the inimitable Christopher R. Weingarten and I were tasked with documenting all the weirdness that was fit to print. Or Tweet, at least. We did the latter from @SPINfestivals, and freed the most salient bits of odd from our notebooks after each 12-hour day, usually between the delirious hours of 3 and 5 a.m. Via SPIN.

It was Aural Standards’ ninth Coachella (and tenth, counting Weekend Two), but it may have been our most memorable yet. While Sacramento’s Death Grips left a deep, seeping impression in our minds (boot-shaped) and Hologram Tupac enjoys a second life as a lasting meme, it was the reunions that did us in. Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come are two of our favorite albums of all time (At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command flies high on that list as well), but never did we imagine we’d witness those songs performed live by the folks who actually made ’em (NMH auteur Jeff Mangum was billed as a solo act). Cheers to the folks at Goldenvoice for throwing scads of money at the problem until it resolved itself. Here are our five faves from each of the first three days. Below is a list of what we covered with excerpted bits. Click on the DAY to read full reviews at SPIN.

FRIDAY
1. Refused: thick, primal slabs of punk that seemed to rattle the scaffolding…
2. Death Grips: Run DMC meets Aerosmith, cranked on incredibly foul PCP…
3. M83: doors opening infinitely to bigger and bigger doors, a galactic gasp…
4. Frank Ocean: for the line about Coachella, the screams were deafening…
5. The Rapture: rogue groups of get-down circles spilling from the sides…

SUNDAY
1. Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg: who rose from below the stage but Tupac himself…
2. At the Drive-In: a high-octane inferno of post-hardcore mania…
3. AraabMUZIK: conducting a symphony of melody, effects and percussion…
4. Le Butcherettes: she ran out into the field, arms out like an airplane…
5. Gotye: the massive human traffic jam stretched 50 yards in every direction…